Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today.”
(Deuteronomy 15:12-15)

“There are six things which Yahweh hates;
    yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
    hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
    feet that are swift in running to mischief,
a false witness who utters lies,
    and he who sows discord among brothers.”
(Proverbs 6:16-19)

Again and again we’re shown that obedience to the Lord and aligning ourselves with His moral character brings abundance and blessing. Abundance and blessing are who God is. He is a GENEROUS God. He is a LOVING God. He is a God who BLESSES. And like any loving Father, He wants us to be like He is. He wants us to be generous, loving, and a blesser of those we interact with. We’re to take this attitude not just because He is God and we are called to be imitators of Him (Ephesians 5:1), but because we were once captive to darkness and Sin and He set us free. As we are free by grace and mercy, we should always be seeking to spread that same kind of grace and mercy through BLESSING people. With things, with finances, with attention, with kindness, and with love. To seek to be a help to them in every way even as God was a help to us in a different way (salvation).

What God DOESN’T like is those things that are contrary to life. Things that steal. Steal moments, steal joy, steal companionship, steal productivity, steal enjoyment, steal peace of mind, and everything else that can be taken from us. That’s what the devil does as he throws his futile but epic toddler tantrum against God (John 10:10). The attitudes that God dislikes and hates, the things that are an abomination to Him are those things that are against His moral character. Against His goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, loving heart, peacefulness, trusting heart, joyfulness, and self-control. When we go against these values, it is a VERY slippery slope that leads us into all kinds of sins and ungodly behaviour – that’s what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:5-10).

Summary

Seeking the heart of God is serious business. His character, emulated by us, is what keeps us from degenerating. Just as there is physical entropy, there is spiritual entropy. A tendency to a downward spiral and degradation from wherever we are standing. If we do not keep our eyes on the Lord and the Word in our heart, we will not push in to the deeper places of Jesus’ love. We will get complacent and we will get lazy and we will stop paying attention to Him. It is GREAT to love the Lord – it brings obedience. But it is a better thing to REVERE the Lord and make sure we are always putting Him in His rightful place and humbly submitting to His point of view. This is wisdom, because (among other things) it is the best way to keep our sights on what really matters and our values where they squarely belong – aligned with His.